Bass Fishing members hold up their fish limit at the Red River Tournament
Bass Fishing members pose with their fourth place plaques.
Bass Fishing members get excited about the fish that gives them the push into fourth place.
The TCU competitive bass fishing team has been catching some success in the short time it’s been around.
The club bass fishing team was formed in 2011 and is made up of 10 members, five of whom compete in tournaments against other schools, and five of whom joined the club as social members to learn more about the sport.
Fishing tournaments are held throughout the year, and senior geography major and club president Joseph Sanderson said that fishing during different times is what keeps the sport interesting.
“[The fish] forage on different species throughout the year,” Sanderson said. “Figuring this out and how to get them to eat is the challenge.”
The team doesn’t just show up to a tournament and start fishing. The team arrives early to go pre-fishing, which Sanderson calls “running and gunning.”
Sanderson described “running and gunning” as doing preliminary fishing and finding the spots where the fish are really biting. The team marks that location on a GPS and moves on to a new area to avoid “sore lipping” the fish.
“You want to save them,” Sanderson said. “If two fish are there, there are probably more close by. If you catch a couple fish in a spot relating to some type of structure, whether it be stumps, drop offs, hydrilla, etc., you go and try to find that same type of structure elsewhere.”
The winner of a tournament is decided by the overall weight of a team’s top five biggest fish. All of the fish must be kept alive and be at least 14 inches long. If a fish dies, the team incurs a four ounce deduction. If a fish is too small, the team will incur a one pound deduction.
The team’s last tournament was held at the Red River in Louisiana where the team nabbed a fourth place victory among the 85-team field.
